“I felt the lost souls. As I touched that 75-foot-deep foundation, I saw that slurry wall, that huge retaining wall that sort of held up during the attack (we should have never seen it and yet was still the foundation of the site). I thought to myself, this is not just about buildings, it’s about memory,” he said. “It’s how to bring the memory and how to create that memory of those who perished, almost 3,000 people from 90 different countries.”

Libeskind says that memory is the foundation for the resurgence of life at the World Trade Center site.

He adds that architecture’s answer to the 9/11 attacks is optimism and rebuilding.

Libeskind’s original design for the Freedom Tower was replaced by a modified design for One World Trade Center by architect David Childs, which maintains the 1,776-foot height.

How do you feel about the design of the World Trade Center? Sound off in the comments section below.

Rich LambRich Lamb is an award-winning reporter, who has been on the air at WCBS for nearly three decades.
His reporting has been cited numerous times,...More fromRich Lamb